Anorexia & Bulimia Diversity Helpful Voices I’m an addicted people pleaser. I don’t want to make anyone upset, inconvenience them, start a conflict, or rock the boat. My drive to get along has caused me to lose my voice. I’ve made some headway, but I have a ways to go. Recently, I realized how it has hurt my recovery. A few weeks ago, I went through … Read More
How OA Changed My Life Recovery Coming Full Circle Today, I went to work out in the employee gym. The last time I went was two years ago, a few months before joining Overeaters Anonymous. At the time, I was at a healthy weight for my size, 150 pounds (68 kg), and had just completed two triathlons. People always complimented me on my health and fitness. Little did they … Read More
Recovery Working the Program My Whole Sum Value Most of my life, I have lived in the extremes of my insanity. I have starved myself, used pills that are known to cause heart attacks, exercised for hours daily, and binged to the point of purging. I thought if I looked a certain way, weighed much less than I did, and acted nice and polite, then others would see … Read More
Higher Power Spirituality A Mistaken Belief After almost ten years in OA and a physical abstinence of my own definition, I struggled with the fact that I was still stuck in obsession and compulsion around food. I had a way of eating that was more or less nutritionally balanced, but I still obsessed about knowing exactly what I was going to eat. I was alternating between … Read More
Steps Tools & Concepts The Powerless Problem I had a problem with my food and weight, which I’d tried most of my life to solve. With various calorie-controlled ways of eating and exercise regimes, I had periods of what seemed like success, followed by gaining weight, feeling worthless, and being uninterested in physical activity. As time went on, the periods of apparent success became shorter: from months, … Read More
Anorexia & Bulimia Most of All, Hope I grew up as an only child with alcoholic overeaters for parents. For the first seventeen years of my life, I dealt with two drunken “rageaholics” acting crazy. I never knew what would happen. I walked around in sheer panic and terror, afraid my parents would divorce, afraid Mom would drink herself to death, afraid Dad would kill someone on … Read More
Anorexia & Bulimia Diversity Meltdown Medicine: Use the Tools I’m a recovering anorexic and bulimic. I have over seven years of not purging, over six years of not weighing myself, and over five years of not restricting. I’m a firm believer that, with time, abstaining gets easier. What I learned this week, however, is there will be days when that doesn’t feel true. Three weeks ago, I had a … Read More
Tools & Concepts Professional Planning When I came into OA in July of 1995, I was working for a weight-loss company and terrified of losing my job because of my weight gain. I was following a diet plan, which is quite different from a plan of eating, and I had to report my food to my manager and weigh in each month. I was in … Read More
Anorexia & Bulimia Diversity Gateway to Freedom I began OA at age 28 after attempting suicide; I’d gained 3 pounds (1.5 kg) after a bulimic episode, peaking at 107 pounds (49 kg). I was nuts; absolutely lost in the mental illness of food preoccupation and self-obsession. I began OA that next day and never left the rooms, our community, and my life of recovery. What I noticed when … Read More